The last planet known to the
ancients and the second largest planet, Saturn appears to the naked
eye as a star shining around magnitude -.5. Saturn takes about 30
years to orbit the Sun and thus spends just over two years in any
given constellation of the zodiac. Like Jupiter, Saturn shines at a
relatively constant brightness thanks to its immense distance from
Earth.

In high-powered binoculars on a tripod, Saturn's famous
rings, while not being truly resolved, do present themselves in that
the planet seems to have an oval shape to it, which Galileo termed as
“ears.”

Like Jupiter, even the smallest telescopes
transform Saturn from a featureless disc into a wonderful world that
must be seen to be believed. First of all, there are the famous
rings, which appear easily at around 50x power. With larger scopes
and higher powers, one can see gaps in the rings, most famously the
Cassini Division, named after its discoverer, 17-18th century astronomer Giovanni Cassini. With very large scopes under steady skies, smaller
divisions may also appear on a good night. Another thing to look for
with Saturn are color bands, which are far more subtle than on
Jupiter. With Saturn's rings, there is an interesting phenomenon that
takes years to present itself. Because of the angles of Earth and
Saturn relative to each other, Saturn's rings appear to 'open' and
'close,' with, once every # years, the rings becoming edge-on and
disappearing from view altogether. This slow progression can be
observed in even the smallest of telescopes. Back to the big scopes,
look for Saturn's moons. While giant Titan is easy to see, it can be
possible to spot some of the other, much smaller ones, too.